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Currently reading: Vulture by Bex Hogan.

Saturday, 17 September 2011

Dear Publishers, Publicists And Authors...

[NB... Edited 18/09/11: I just want to make it clear that this is not a "send me free books because I want them or for any other reason because I want them... and I'm making excuses" post. It's basically an explanation of the way things are at the moment... I never meant for this to sound the way and if it does then I apologise, but please know that I don't mean it to sound that way at all...]


Okay... So I've been meaning to write something like this for a while but I just haven't found the time, which is kind of the point of the post... Anyway... a bit of backstory...

I started at a new job last November and initially all was good. But work have slowly ramped up the pressure to the point where it is pretty mental. At the moment, I still don't know if I have a permanant job... I'm waiting on the next few months to find out... and therefore the pressure continues. I don't have a lot of free time and when I do I have a lot of commitments. Reading. Reviewing. Friends. My life. And so I struggle to get everything done that I want to and in the time that I want to get it done in.

This isn't a "I'm announcing the end of my blogging" post and it's not meant to sound like that. This is a little bit of an apology and just a bit of a heads up of how things are going to go from here on out...

I have so many books on my to be read pile at the moment that it is literally freaking insane. At the moment I think the pile has stretched to 30 books (at least half of which I have brought myself so it is self inflicted...) and while I am gettting through them at a steady pace, my reading will be a bit slower. So what I'm going to do is this. I'm going to continue to read and only review books that I believe are exceptionally amazing and need to be highlighted. Or books which I really enjoy or have been waiting for for such a long time. That's not to say that the odd book will get a slightly negative review. I'm honest with all my reviews and books do not always live up to our anticipations. Also ones which I specifically request. At the moment, I have a list of about 19 books which I'm meant to be reviewing and I am going to fight fight fight to get them all reviewed, however with my current review plans, I fear that some may have to be written off... Well not exactly...

I am going to do, possibly once or twice a month, a round-up review type thing where I'll feature a few books I have read and what I thought of them. For the occasional book there might as well be a review as I'll write a novel about it, but it'll be featured. I want to feature EVERY book I get sent because I cannot begin to explain how much I appreciate every book I get sent. But work and everything has totally messed u my blogging this year and trust me, I am mad!

But yeah, that's how things are about to go down... Or at least I hope so. Ha. Again I want to say, the the publishers, publicists, authors and anyone else that ever sends or has sent me books, I want to say thank you. I really do appreciate every proof, signed copy, finished copy, manuscript, pdf I am sent. When I first started I was able to keep up but now I get sent so much from you lovely folk that I just don't have the time. That's not to say "please stop" because you guys know me better than that by now! ;) You send me such lovelies and some I would never dream of getting under my own steam and then I fall in love so thank you! I will do my best to get them reviewed or at least mentioned. I'll email you my thoughts too!

So yeah... hopefully things will be a lot more structured around here. Thanks for reading, if you managed to get to the end.

3 comments:

  1. I have to say, reading this post makes me feel a little sick. In simple terms you are here asking publishers to continue to send you books even though you are unlikely to review many of them. Unless of course they are ones that you have been waiting for for a long time - to me this reads as... "I want books for free and I deserve them because I have liked books by this author in the past!!!"

    I used to like reading your blog, but I think it is very poor to be giving pathetic excuses about workload and having a pile of 19 books requiring reviews, in the same breath as saying that you want to continue to receive books for free. If your workload means you cannot continue with the blog then don't.

    If you had even an ounce of integrity you would do what some other bloggers have done (Becky at The Bookette being the best example) and tell publishers that because life is so busy you are no longer able to receive books. Then you could write those 19 reviews, read that pile of 30 books and publish reviews of those, and I am sure that people would still read your blog.

    I've had my say, I won't be coming back.

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  2. Don't worry, I understand the circumstances. I love your blog, so I'll look forward to future posts =)

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  3. This isn't going to be a retaliation comment, just a bit of further explanation. If that's the way my post sounds to you, then fair enough. That's how it sounds to you. It's not how it's meant to sound but I can't choose the way people read this. It's entirely down to them.

    I'm not saying I want free books. I've never said and I never will. That is not why I blog. Nor is it why I ever got into blogging. My reading pile at the moment consists mostly of books I have purchased myself... so there ya go...

    And as for excuses... I'm not making excuses. I work damn hard and you know nothing about it. I work freaking long hours and so do not have a lot of time. The time I do have however, I make the most of.

    I'm sorry you won't be reading the blog anymore but I never started the blog for numbers. It was always for myself. For fun, and so that's the way I still choose to view it. End of. Thanks for your comment though. I understand what you mean and appreciate your opinion but it's not the way I want it to come across at all... :/

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